French telecommunications company Iliad SA has made a surprise offer for T-Mobile US Inc, setting up a potential bidding war with Sprint Corp, the U.S. mobile carrier now controlled by Japan's Softbank Corp.Iliad, which has shaken up the French mobile and broadband market in the past decade with its cheap, pared-down subscriber plans, bid $15 billion in cash for 56.6 percent of T-Mobile US at $33 per share, it said in a statement on Thursday.The Paris-based company said its offer for the fourth-largest U.S. carrier values all of T-Mobile at $36.20 per share, a premium of 42 percent over the pre-announcement share price.That is less than the roughly $40 per share Sprint agreed to pay under the broad terms of an agreement worked out with Deutsche Telekom AG, T-Mobile's majority owner. The terms of that proposal, which followed months of talks and which was reported by Reuters in early June, would value T-Mobile at nearly $32 billion.
Shares of TMUS traded higher by 6.46% or $2.0/share to $32.94. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $22.95 and as high as $35.50. On average, 3769450 shares of TMUS exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 29262188.
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